The Beloved Scoundrel

gazed defiantly at him. “I’m sure you will make no objection to that. It’s why I’m here.”

“No objection at all,” he said quietly. “But you still haven’t told me what you wish as reparation.”

She gestured impatiently. “Work is a gift. I need to work.”

“Do you?” He studied her flushed cheeks and the tense line of her mouth. “I believe you do. Then of course you shall have it.”

“At once?”

“Why not?” He kicked his horse into a trot. “I think it’s an excellent way to make you realize that you have only to ask, and I’ll supply your every need.”

Alex came running toward her across the courtyard as soon as she and Jordan rode through the gates. “The horses are beautiful, Marianna. All of them! Gregor says Jordan invites half of England here for races every spring.”

“London,” Gregor corrected. “I fear even Cambaron could not accommodate half of England.”

“We’re going to be here for the races,” Alex said. “You should see the stallion Jordan purchased from the Berber sheikh.” He frowned. “What’s a sheikh?”

“I’m sure Gregor will be glad to explain,” Marianna said. She was certain Papa had mentioned these sheikhs, but she could not remember. For all she knew there were Berber sheikhs running all over this dratted England.

Alex’s eyes were blazing with excitement. “You’ve got to see all of the horses. Come on, I’ll show you!”

“Not now,” Gregor said as he lifted Marianna from the saddle. “I’m sure your sister has had enough of the smell of horses for one day. Let her go to her chamber and rest.”

“Rest?” Alex stared at him in bewilderment. “Now? Why would she want to do that?”

“Perhaps you could take Alex to see the racecourse we’ve laid out in the south pasture, Gregor.” Jordan took Marianna’s elbow. “While I introduce Marianna to the servants and show her to her chamber.”

He stood there, perfectly at ease. He belonged in this great castle, wielding power, dispensing favors or vengeance as it suited him, as his ancestors had done for centuries before him.

Power.

The flesh of her arm tingled beneath his hand. She felt suddenly suffocated, overwhelmed. She had to escape. “I’m sure Gregor can do that later. I want to see the stable.” She shook off Jordan’s grip and grabbed Alex’s hand. “Come show me, Alex.”

Jordan’s hands slowly clenched as he stared at Marianna and Alex running across the courtyard. “What are you waiting for?” he said roughly to Gregor. “Go after them.”

“Presently. It will take Alex a while to show her through that first stable.” Gregor watched the two disappear through the stable doors. “She is afraid.”

“Yes.” Jordan gave him a sardonic glance. “But not of me, I assure you.”

“A little of you. It’s a new world, and you are king of it. You must make it easier for her.”

“I tried.” He glared at him. “What the devil do you want from me? First, you insist I distance myself from your dove, and now you want me to come closer.”

“Not too close. You must walk a fine line.”

“I’m not good at balancing on tightropes. Do it yourself.”

“I will do my part.” He smiled. “You were very good on the Seastorm. I thought perhaps I had lost you that night.”

“I’m glad I earned your approval. It’s my heartfelt goal in life.”

“Why are you so angry with me? You would not have done as I advised if you had not known I was right. You would have kept drifting until it was too late.”

And Marianna would have occupied his bed on the Seastorm and here at Cambaron, Jordan thought. The drifting Gregor spoke about would have culminated in an inevitable coming together. He would have found a way to seduce her, lure her. He would have taught her to please him, to open her thighs and welcome him into that tightness that he had been thinking about since Gregor had told him he couldn’t have it. Dammit, he was hardening now at the thought as he did every time he saw her. “Did it ever occur to you that’s what I wanted to do?”

“Yes,” Gregor said. “A part of you, the part that was the decadent boy you were when I first came to Cambaron.”

“That boy is still very much a part of me.”

“But he is controlled by the man you are.”

“Is he?” He looked back at the stable. Control had little to do with what he wanted to do to and with Marianna. The more he held back, the more intense the lust, the more erotic the imagining. “Don’t count on it, Gregor.”

“I do count on it,” Gregor said serenely.

“Suppose I decide that it would be easier to make Marianna do what I want in regard to the Window if she’s trained to please me in other ways?”

“It would not be a fair decision, and you are a fair man.” Gregor started across the courtyard. “But I think it would be best if you visit Madam Carruthers as soon as possible. You have been without a woman too long.”

God knows, that was true. He had fully intended to slake that lust as soon as he reached Cambaron. He would go visit- Dammit, he did not want to visit Laura Carruthers with her lush body and the insatiable appetites he usually found amusing. The thought was not at all appealing.

And neither was the task he must perform now, he thought grimly. He must talk to the servants and pave the way for Marianna with Gregor’s lie, put her in a position where seduction was impossible.

No, not impossible, just more difficult. If he chose to circumvent the barriers, he could do it.

If he chose…

This is Mrs. Jenson.” Gregor smiled at the plump gray-haired woman. “She is most kind and will be glad to serve you in any way you wish. How are you, Jenny?”

“Very well, Mr. Damek.” She smiled. “Welcome to Cambaron, miss. We are all saddened to hear about your loss in that heathen country.”

The woman was curtsying to her.

Heat flooded Marianna’s cheeks. “Thank you,” she said weakly.

“And where is the poor bereaved lad?”

She must mean Alex. “In… in the stable.”

“We couldn’t get him to leave the horses. William will care for him and bring him a little later,” Gregor said.

“Yes, William Stoneham’s a good man.” She curtsied again to Marianna. “His Grace has instructed me to take you straight to your chamber. Will you come with me?” She did not wait for an answer but moved brusquely across the hall toward the wide stone staircase that appeared to stretch to heaven.

The housekeeper’s words echoed hollowly off the high arched ceiling of the hall. Marianna carefully avoided looking around her as she followed the housekeeper up the steps. She had already had too much to absorb in the two hours she had been here. Cambaron was more a kingdom than an estate with its magnificent stables and carriage barns and now this dark cavern of a castle. There were more men and women here to serve one man than there had been in the entire village of Samda.

Mrs. Jenson said, “I’ve assigned Mary as your maid. She’s young but very willing.”

Maid? She cast Gregor a wild glance, and he smiled reassuringly. “Perhaps we will let Miss Sanders serve herself for a time. She is shy of strangers.”

“But she must have-” Mrs. Jenson’s glance encountered Marianna’s, and she smiled gently. “Of course, it will take time to overcome the memories of such a terrible ordeal.” She proceeded up the stairs. “In the meantime you must only give a tug to the bellpull, and someone will come.”

She would rather jump from the top of this gigantic staircase than pull that bell, Marianna thought fervently. She wanted only to hide in her chamber and close everyone out until she could become used to the vastness of this huge place.

They were now going down a long, dim hall lined on either side with portraits of all sizes and descriptions. “These pictures are of His Grace’s family,” Mrs. Jenson said as she noticed Marianna’s interest. She pointed to one large painting of a bearded man in hip boots and a jerkin that was puffed at his hips. “That was Randolph Percival Draken, the fifth Duke of Cambaron. He was a great favorite of Queen Elizabeth. She stayed here several times, you know.”